Eva Wiseman | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/profile/evawiseman
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The pains and gains of breastfeeding | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/29/pains-and-gains-of-breastfeeding-new-mothers
<p>We’re all told that breastfeeding is the best start you can give your baby, but it can also be bloody agony – both physically and emotionally. So give new mothers a break</p><p>“This is a column about <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/breastfeeding" title="">breastfeeding</a>” is a sentence I&nbsp;never thought I’d write. All those “Put a&nbsp;sheet over your tits, woman, says Claridges” stories happened in the write-off months when I’d&nbsp;recently given birth, when the baby was leeched to my chest for 20 out of every 24 hours, and it felt like everybody had an opinion about breastfeeding. Except me. Except me,&nbsp;down there in the milky trenches,&nbsp;as far from an opinion as&nbsp;I&nbsp;was from eight hours’ sleep, ie&nbsp;very far away indeed.</p><p>Today I am saner. I have yet to sleep for longer than an episode of <em>House of Cards</em>, but I can nod in the right bits of a conversation and smile&nbsp;at certain jokes. And as I&nbsp;digest the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/18/brazil-longer-babies-breastfed-more-achieve-in-life-major-study" title="">new study on the benefits of breastfeeding</a> (one of the&nbsp;first, I&nbsp;think, to rule out the variable factors that can skew results, like class and income), I feel an opinion about to land. Except then it floats away again.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/29/pains-and-gains-of-breastfeeding-new-mothers">Continue reading...</a>BreastfeedingWomenLife and styleParents and parentingFamilyHealth & wellbeingSun, 29 Mar 2015 05:00:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/29/pains-and-gains-of-breastfeeding-new-mothersPhotograph: Monashee Alonso/Getty Images/Caiaimage‘There’s a reason many women stop breastfeeding after six weeks – because that’s when we go outside alone’: Eva Wiseman.Photograph: Monashee Alonso/Getty Images/Caiaimage‘There’s a reason many women stop breastfeeding after six weeks – because that’s when we go outside alone’: Eva Wiseman.Eva Wiseman2015-03-29T05:00:04ZThe hipster as fashion icon is under threat | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/22/hipster-as-fashion-icon-under-threat-american-apparel-urban-outfitters-eva-wiseman
The hipster look can sometimes court controversy. You don’t have to look far – at the often-offensive Urban Outfitters and misogynistic American Apparel – to find out why<p>I am a hipster sympathiser. Even though it’s a word I can’t say out loud, I can only type. And then only if I la-la-la over the clicking of the keys. But I am pro-beard, pro-vintage cardies, pro-nail art with faces on, because I believe the hipster to be on the side of good. On the side of inclusiveness and outsiderness, and ethics, and “investing in the arts” and all of that sort of general nice-guy decency.</p><p>Except the hipster is no more. Despite reports in this very magazine that the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/08/can-hipsters-save-the-world">hipster’s “flat white economy”</a> is the future of British prosperity, its visual identity is floundering. As a word it has been swallowed by a stamp of a moustache, chewed up in its own teeth in a terrible accident of signifier/signified, and as a concept it has been destroyed by the brands that took this aesthetic mainstream. Hour by hour, the “hipster” fashion companies that have come to define it have declined ever further, another beanie unsold, another worn-in band T-shirt left another day. Urban Outfitters, with its stores like the set of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/dec/26/new-girl-box-set-review"><em>New Girl</em></a> and its clothes rails like the end of an Essex pool party, has seen sales fall steadily since 2011. American Apparel has lost so much money it hasn’t made a profit since 2009; last year it was nearly <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/sapna/american-apparel-might-get-delisted-from-the-new-york-stock%23.kq6qw3JZx#.wbyddBj6JL">“delisted” from the New York Stock Exchange</a>. And on an even more basic level, the clothes just no longer look… cool.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/22/hipster-as-fashion-icon-under-threat-american-apparel-urban-outfitters-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>American ApparelFashionWomenLife and styleFeminismSun, 22 Mar 2015 05:59:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/22/hipster-as-fashion-icon-under-threat-american-apparel-urban-outfitters-eva-wisemanPhotograph: David Levene/ObserverEva Wiseman: 'I am pro-beard, pro-vintage cardies, pro-nail art with faces on, because I believe the hipster to be on the side of good.' Above: a Lego figure that embodies hipster cool. Photograph: David Levene for the ObserverPhotograph: David Levene/ObserverEva Wiseman: 'I am pro-beard, pro-vintage cardies, pro-nail art with faces on, because I believe the hipster to be on the side of good.' Above: a Lego figure that embodies hipster cool. Photograph: David Levene for the ObserverEva Wiseman2015-03-22T05:59:04ZThe real way to kick out prejudice | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/15/kick-out-prejudice-chelsea-ukip
Standing next to someone from a minority won’t prove to anyone that you are not prejudiced. Diversity goes deeper than cheap publicity stunts<p>The sight that greeted people as they approached Wembley from the station, the looks on their faces. After a mob of Chelsea fans was filmed singing “We’re racist and we like it” and preventing a black man getting into their carriage on the Paris Metro, most Chelsea supporters have been keeping their heads down, quietly apologising. And then they came out of Wembley Park station to this.</p><p>So a betting company had hired a Sikh man, a woman in a niqab, a black man and a white woman in a wheelchair to pose in front of a green banner, inviting Chelsea fans to be photographed with them to “prove you’re not prejudiced”. They tweeted photos of the stunt – pissed boys, faces like wadded toilet paper, clinking cans above the white woman’s head, one guy laughing so wide you can see the staining on his guts – but off to the sides of the banner you see the other fans walking past with their collars up, their eyes lowered like “Please, please God no.”</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/15/kick-out-prejudice-chelsea-ukip">Continue reading...</a>ChelseaUK Independence party (Ukip)FootballRace issuesPoliticsSun, 15 Mar 2015 06:00:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/15/kick-out-prejudice-chelsea-ukipPhotograph: Paul Gilham/Getty ImagesAll in it together: Chelsea fans hold up an anti-racism banner at Stamford Bridge on 21 February 2015 in London. Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Paul Gilham/Getty ImagesAll in it together: Chelsea fans hold up an anti-racism banner at Stamford Bridge on 21 February 2015 in London. Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty ImagesEva Wiseman2015-03-15T06:00:03ZMoving house? Step away from the mouse | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/08/moving-house-step-away-from-the-mouse
<p>Online carpet caressing, mattress procrastination, unwanted furniture friends… moving house for the first time in a decade sends Eva deep into an internet spiral</p><p>I know I’ve spent too long on <a href="http://www.gumtree.com/" title="">Gumtree</a> when I find myself thinking, yes, I&nbsp;do need a 3kg bag of hair. Since you’re offering. Since you’re offering all this hair.</p><p>Next week I’m moving house. There’s a lot of things we need, and a&nbsp;lot we need to lose, so I put an advert up for a load of unwanted furniture, free to whoever could collect it. Nobody wanted it. Then I&nbsp;edited the ad so everything was &pound;15 each and have been inundated with emails, sometimes from people who seem just to want to chat. It’s amazing how smooth their transition from “Chest of drawers measurements?” is to “My flatmate is at Tesco and I feel alone.” Where do they even find these emojis? They must have downloaded a special app.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/08/moving-house-step-away-from-the-mouse">Continue reading...</a>Sun, 08 Mar 2015 06:00:13 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/08/moving-house-step-away-from-the-mousePhotograph: Imagebank‘Next week I’m moving house. There’s a lot of things we need, and a lot we need to lose’: Eva Wiseman gets ready for a change. Photograph: ImagebankPhotograph: Imagebank‘Next week I’m moving house. There’s a lot of things we need, and a lot we need to lose’: Eva Wiseman gets ready for a change. Photograph: ImagebankEva Wiseman2015-03-08T06:00:13ZPostcards from the edge: our fascination with death | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/01/our-fascination-with-death-eve-wiseman
<p>Why are we so captivated by people writing about their own imminent death? It’s because we don’t believe in our own…</p><p>Sometimes it comes quietly, yawning, and other times it appears storming out of the sea to grab a man in the prime of his life and drag him away into the wet and green. You will never die. Nope. But you will see the rest of us go, and some of us will have our hands held and for some of us you’ll cry. I know because I’ve read about it.</p><p>The last family funeral I went to was my grandma’s, in a mixed-faith cemetery in Manchester, where our Jewish bit was dour without the east side’s Catholic wreaths. It seemed to be raining more over in our section, too, where a little crowd of us stood and said things like: “She challenged us right to the end,” and her carer, her feet and hands bandaged with burns, cried. But either the coffin was too big or the grave was too small, and despite having “watched her weight” for 90ish years, she just wouldn’t fit. The rain was coming down quite hard then, as the rabbi scrabbled at the dirt to widen the hole, and my mum gripped my arm and I knew we were dangerously close to shrieking with laughter.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/01/our-fascination-with-death-eve-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>Death and dyingSocietyLife and styleSun, 01 Mar 2015 06:00:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/01/our-fascination-with-death-eve-wisemanPhotograph: Mike Segar/ReutersRain drops on a figurine of an angel at a makeshift memorial honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut December 17, 2012. Photograph: Mike Segar/ReutersPhotograph: Mike Segar/ReutersRain drops on a figurine of an angel at a makeshift memorial honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut December 17, 2012. Photograph: Mike Segar/ReutersEva Wiseman2015-03-01T06:00:14ZKim Kardashian can splash out, but I love super-budget beautyhttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/feb/27/kim-kardashian-can-splash-out-but-i-love-super-budget-beauty
<p>The glamorous celebrity has revealed that the contents of her beauty bag tot up to £1,290. She should try a trip to Poundland</p><p>Earlier this month, Poundland announced plans to buy <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/06/poundand-buys-rival-99p-stores">its rival chain 99p Stores</a>, and this week news arrived of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/feb/26/how-often-should-you-wash-your-hair-every-five-days-kardashian">Kim Kardashian</a>’s eye-watering beauty budget. You would be a fool to think we wouldn’t connect the two. Including face creams, foundations, and mascara, the value of Kardashian’s bathroom shelf adds up to $1,977.75 (&pound;1,290). In real Poundland terms, that’s 1,283 Frozen bubble baths (400ml), with change left to put towards a six pack of batteries. If only Kim had known the pleasures of a Poundland toiletry haul.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/feb/26/how-often-should-you-wash-your-hair-every-five-days-kardashian">How often should you wash your hair? Every five days if you're Kim Kardashian</a> </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/feb/27/kim-kardashian-can-splash-out-but-i-love-super-budget-beauty">Continue reading...</a>BeautyMakeupFashionLife and styleKim KardashianSkincareFri, 27 Feb 2015 14:15:19 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/feb/27/kim-kardashian-can-splash-out-but-i-love-super-budget-beautyPhotograph: Beretta/Sims/REX/Beretta/Sims/REXThat face cost how much? Kim Kardashian leaving the Dorchester Hotel.Photograph: Beretta/Sims/REX/Beretta/Sims/REXThat face cost how much? Kim Kardashian leaving the Dorchester Hotel.Eva Wiseman2015-02-27T14:15:19ZWhy femicide won’t end until we have a truly equal societyhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/22/femicide-census-equality-eva-wiseman
The new census listing women killed by men aims to shed light on a dark subject. But femicide will not stop until we change the culture that supports it<p>Last week saw the launch of the <a href="http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-events.asp?itemid=3351&amp;itemTitle=Femicide+Census%3A+Profiles+of+Women+Killed+by+Men&amp;section=000100010017&amp;sectionTitle=Events+calendar" title="">Femicide Census</a>, a list of murdered women that digs down into the internet like a terrible well. It was reported at length in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/08/killing-of-women-by-men-record-database-femicide" title="">this paper</a>, in a piece that detailed what has changed since <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/15/domestic-violence-men-killing-women?CMP=share_btn_tw" title="">Karen Ingala Smith</a> first started counting dead women in 2012, and contained tributes to some of the victims, pictured smiling and beautiful, looking off to the side of the photos, shy.</p><p>Since that piece was published though, it’s likely that in the UK alone, four more women have been murdered by their partners. This thing is going to take some time. The numbers continue to rise. These deaths are being defined not just as murders, but as “femicide”, because these are very particular deaths. These 150 women, the word acknowledges, were killed for being women. They were killed for being women because killing women is the endgame of inequality. So the word is important, because it defines their deaths as sexist acts, as tragedies that we are all witness to. The aim of the census is to connect the cases in order to analyse this violence properly, and then to end it.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/22/femicide-census-equality-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>WomenSun, 22 Feb 2015 05:59:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/22/femicide-census-equality-eva-wisemanPhotograph: Antonio Melita/Demotix/CorbisMaking a stand: hundreds of pairs red shoes in Palermo, representing the many victims of femicide. Photograph: Antonio Melita/Demotix/CorbisPhotograph: Antonio Melita/Demotix/CorbisMaking a stand: hundreds of pairs red shoes in Palermo, representing the many victims of femicide. Photograph: Antonio Melita/Demotix/CorbisEva Wiseman2015-02-22T05:59:01ZWhy Fifty Shades finds itself in a world of pain | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/15/fifty-shades-film-screening-mother-and-baby-eva-wiseman
<p>A ludicrous plot padded out with mortifying sex scenes… No wonder some mothers have decided the best person to see Fifty Shades of Grey with is their new baby</p><p>One great thing about taking my baby&nbsp;to a parent and baby screening of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/fifty-shades-of-grey" title=""><em>Fifty Shades of Grey</em></a> will be that it will&nbsp;save so much time in therapy 30 years down&nbsp;the line. I will be able to show&nbsp;her, not just the place her sexuality was formed, but the day, and the aisle, and&nbsp;that it happened before lunchtime, too.</p><p>Already, in her short damp life, she has enjoyed Julianne Moore fantasising about her&nbsp;dead mother during a drug-fuelled threesome. The auditorium vibrated with a&nbsp;neighbouring baby’s vivid farts. She has cried along with&nbsp;me as Jack O’Connell returned bloodied from the Troubles. She has&nbsp;walked out during one of Joaquin Phoenix’s endless car journeys, slept through the bleeding drum solos of <em>Whiplash</em>, and premiered a new giggle during <em>Nightcrawler</em>’s many and varied deaths.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/15/fifty-shades-film-screening-mother-and-baby-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>Fifty Shades of GreyFilmCultureSam Taylor-JohnsonEL JamesBooksSex, Lies and VideotapeSun, 15 Feb 2015 06:01:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/15/fifty-shades-film-screening-mother-and-baby-eva-wisemanPhotograph: Allstar/Focus FeaturesPure agony: Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in Fifty Shades of Grey. ‘This film appears to be specifically designed for babies, or at least an audience without critical faculties,’ says Eva WisemanPhotograph: Allstar/Focus FeaturesPure agony: Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in Fifty Shades of Grey. ‘This film appears to be specifically designed for babies, or at least an audience without critical faculties,’ says Eva WisemanPhotograph: Capital PicturesPure agony: Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson
in Fifty Shades of Grey. 'This film appears to be specifically designed for babies, or at least an audience without critical faculties,' says Eva Wiseman Photograph: Capital PicturesPhotograph: Capital PicturesPure agony: Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson
in Fifty Shades of Grey. 'This film appears to be specifically designed for babies, or at least an audience without critical faculties,' says Eva Wiseman Photograph: Capital PicturesEva Wiseman2015-02-15T06:01:04ZWhy are creative women dismissed as ‘quirky’? | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/08/killer-word-quirky-eva-wiseman
<p>When a creative man divides the critics he is called ‘surreal’ or even a ‘genius’, while a woman is denigrated with the label ‘quirky’ – and that kicks the legs out from under us</p><p>I’m reading a book that I love. It is heartbreakingly sad, and thoughtful, and disgusting and hilarious, but it’s <a href="http://www.wordandfilm.com/2015/02/boho-feminist-lib-lena-dunham-miranda-july-conversation/">Miranda July’s first novel</a>, so the word most regularly being used to describe it in reviews is “quirky”. And what that word does, as it falls on the work like a piano from a great height, is crush it.</p><p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/miranda-july">Miranda July</a> has written books, and feature films, and made records, and her art projects have involved things like shared emails and phone apps that connected strangers. Every time she unpicks tiny humiliations, exploring people’s inner lives, and every time critics say she’s quirky. To be quirky is to be whimsical. To be frivolous, naive, awkward, self-conscious. To have disproportionately large eyes and a faraway gaze. It is to be twee. It defines a character by her eccentricities rather than inviting you to see them as a whole. Quirky suggests a description of appearance, of colourful tights, beads, and people singing where they’re not meant to sing, but it quietly nods at something deeper. It dismisses the thing, the film, book, woman (quirkiness, I think, has become a gendered trait) as frivolous. Quirky is a pat on the head of art. It is the “Calm down, dear” of the ageing critic, the patronising wink. The “aaah”.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/08/killer-word-quirky-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>WomenMiranda JulyFilmFeminismLife and styleSun, 08 Feb 2015 06:00:07 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/08/killer-word-quirky-eva-wisemanPhotograph: Richard Saker/ObserverMiranda July, who writes ‘about intimate female lives – huge terrors, profound experiences – which are often ignored because the voice she writes it in is… girly’. Photograph: Richard Saker for the ObserverPhotograph: Richard Saker/ObserverMiranda July, who writes ‘about intimate female lives – huge terrors, profound experiences – which are often ignored because the voice she writes it in is… girly’. Photograph: Richard Saker for the ObserverEva Wiseman2015-02-08T06:00:07ZIf a stranger in the street looked like they needed help, would you intervene? | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/01/would-you-help-a-stranger-in-the-street-eva-wiseman
<p>Get involved and possibly pay a price – or leave well alone?</p><p>Last summer was one of the hottest on record. The streets were full of prams and teenagers, pavements sticky with melted Twisters. I have a friend who has a friend called Rose who, in August, was waiting for a bus into Camden. At the bus stop a woman sat blankly while in the pram next to her, her baby cried. It wasn’t a regular cry, she said, it was a scream, like an exhausted, in-pain scream. The woman was bent forward. People were staring as they passed. After a few minutes, Rose asked if she was OK. The mother looked up from her lap. “She never stops crying,” she said. “She hates me.” They talked for a few minutes, over the screams. The bus was late. “Maybe she’d like you to pick her up?” Rose suggested. “Sometimes they just want to be held.” The mother sighed and balanced the baby on the very edge of her knee. Except, when she took the baby out of the pram, Rose noticed bruises. On the baby’s cheek, and on her neck, and then the bus came.</p><p>What would you do? This is what I keep thinking. What would I do? So much of our lives are spent trying to do the right thing. Not even the best thing, just the least bad thing. And what’s your responsibility in a situation like this, when you see somebody that you think needs help, and somebody that you think needs protecting? I used to love <em>Choose Your Own Adventure </em>books. “You emerge into a clearing. A knight is resting on a rock. The dragon is nowhere to be seen, but a faint smell of sulphur is coming from the east. Do you call the police?” “You are standing in a candlelit room. There are two doors, and on the table is a dusty children’s book. Which door do you choose?” I used to love these books, but in real life other people’s adventures can derail your own.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/01/would-you-help-a-stranger-in-the-street-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>Child protectionSun, 01 Feb 2015 06:00:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/01/would-you-help-a-stranger-in-the-street-eva-wisemanPhotograph: J Norden/IBL/Rex Features‘Rose received a phone call. She was wanted. The messages grew angrier…’ Eva Wiseman. Photograph: J Norden/IBL/Rex FeaturesPhotograph: J Norden/IBL/Rex Features‘Rose received a phone call. She was wanted. The messages grew angrier…’ Eva Wiseman. Photograph: J Norden/IBL/Rex FeaturesEva Wiseman2015-02-01T06:00:17ZQuestions to make you fall in love | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/25/questions-to-make-you-fall-in-love-eva-wiseman
<p>That online list of questions that promised to make us fall in love didn’t go far enough. But these penetrating insights could be the start of something big...</p><p>A thing happened last week. A&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html?_r=0" title="">list&nbsp;of 36 questions</a> was published online (following an article in the <em>New York Times</em>) that promised to&nbsp;make two people fall in love. The&nbsp;questions start as networking-event ice breakers (“Who would you want as a&nbsp;dinner&nbsp;guest?”) and end with the sharing of your darkest dreams, and a&nbsp;period of absolute silence. The questions worked by creating that atmosphere of mutual vulnerability in which a&nbsp;romantic relationship thrives. But I’m not&nbsp;convinced they&nbsp;dug quite deep enough. So…</p><p><strong>1 </strong>What shade of tan do you like your tea?</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/25/questions-to-make-you-fall-in-love-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>RelationshipsLife and styleSun, 25 Jan 2015 06:00:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/25/questions-to-make-you-fall-in-love-eva-wisemanPhotograph: Rex FeaturesSoul searching: from here to happily ever after in 36 quick questions. Photograph: Rex FeaturesPhotograph: Rex FeaturesSoul searching: from here to happily ever after in 36 quick questions. Photograph: Rex FeaturesEva Wiseman2015-01-25T06:00:03ZAre we losing the London we love? | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/18/losing-london-we-love-eva-wiseman
<p>Gritty, edgy London – the Soho haunts, the East End fixtures – is being taken over and redeveloped. It’s changing the capital, but who’ll be left to call it home?</p><p>For someone who really loves London, I’m starting to hate it a lot. The walk from my flat to Soho takes about 40 minutes, and on the way we pass One Commercial Street. It’s made of grey glass, like a big powerless telly. The only clear difference between this residential block and others nearby is that its name (unlike, say, Mettle &amp; Poise, the Hackney Road development built in the ruins of a children’s hospital) doesn’t pretend it’s somewhere else.</p><p>This is the site of one of the most glaring examples of a development with a “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/25/poor-doors-segregation-london-flats">poor door</a>” in London (the separate entrance for those who live in cheaper flats is in a single-file alley down the side of a Pret a Manger) and this is the site of anarchist group <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans/2013/dec/03/undercover-police-and-policing-surveillance">Class War</a>’s most recent success. After they spent five months picketing outside, with a banner promising to “devastate the avenues where the wealthy live”, the building’s developer, Redrow, sold its stake. The new owners have agreed to negotiate with the protestors about ending their use of segregated entrances. Redrow was in the news recently when it pulled an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2015/jan/05/american-psycho-redrow-property-promo-pulled-after-twitterstorm">advert</a> ridiculed by an audience who saw, rather than aspirational luxury, a <a href="https://twitter.com/sianushka/status/551386211970191360">“neo-liberalist capitalist dystopic future-present nightmare”</a>. Oh well.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/18/losing-london-we-love-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>LondonLondonCitiesSun, 18 Jan 2015 06:00:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/18/losing-london-we-love-eva-wisemanPhotograph: Sarah Lee/GuardianEnd of an era: One Commercial Street near Aldgate East. A luxury development that provides low-cost housing to people who have to use a ‘poor door’ in an alleyway nearby. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the GuardianPhotograph: Sarah Lee/GuardianEnd of an era: One Commercial Street near Aldgate East. A luxury development that provides low-cost housing to people who have to use a ‘poor door’ in an alleyway nearby. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the GuardianEva Wiseman2015-01-18T06:00:06ZUp all night | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/11/up-all-night-babies-view-of-the-world-eva-wiseman
<p>Sitting silently at the window at 4am offers a view on to a very different world – one where innocence and too much experience meet</p><p>There’s a time called 4am and there&nbsp;you will find me feeding a&nbsp;baby by the light of an iPhone 5. Our bedroom window faces the street. At the junction, almost facing each other, is the women’s hostel and a&nbsp;block of student flats. The residents of both often wake with me and roam&nbsp;the pavement, drunk and wearing noisy shoes. When I&nbsp;drag the&nbsp;baby from her bed her little nails claw at my skin like a Bad Sex award,&nbsp;and I’m neither awake nor asleep, or&nbsp;anything really at all.</p><p>At 4am there’s a woman who stands underneath our window, and she says: “Nobody will wish me Happy New Year because I’m&nbsp;homeless.” She repeats it again and again, quite Bob Dylan-y, and I think: “It’s not because you’re homeless. It’s because looking at you is difficult and makes people feel scared, because your face has holes in it and because you are very, very high.” And besides, I think, I’ve said it to you twice so. She calls it out to the students, who ignore her because at 4am they are mostly acting as if they are alive for the very first time. They throw their bottles towards the bins and cheer when they smash, and they march, singing, in waves of posh and catchphrases. Often, on our strip of road, because they’re so close to home they cry. Two boys shout over each other as they tumble home from the tube. One is explaining how he dumped someone for having a Hotmail address, while the other recites the location of every Sainsbury’s Local from here to Holborn. A&nbsp;girl&nbsp;is telling&nbsp;her friend about a text message she wasn’t meant to receive. One of their&nbsp;flatmates hates her, she sobs, and weighing up the evidence, I&nbsp;think&nbsp;he has a point. But that’s as far as my thoughts go now. There’s a&nbsp;wall there.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/11/up-all-night-babies-view-of-the-world-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>BreastfeedingHealth & wellbeingParents and parentingLife and styleSun, 11 Jan 2015 06:00:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/11/up-all-night-babies-view-of-the-world-eva-wisemanPhotograph: Lewis WhyldAfter the party: three women hurry home after a late night. Photograph: Lewis WhyldPhotograph: Lewis WhyldAfter the party: three women hurry home after a late night. Photograph: Lewis WhyldEva Wiseman2015-01-11T06:00:10ZThe seismic changes of having a baby | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/04/seismic-changes-of-having-baby-eva-wiseman
<p>Exhaustion; TV that’s suddenly hard to stomach; a whole new relationship with a partner, family, job… Five months into motherhood and everything has changed. <strong>Eva Wiseman</strong> returns</p><p>Barnacle geese lay their eggs at the tops of cliffs, all blue and bleak, wind bloody everywhere. But their goslings, when they hatch, aren’t yet able to fly, and the only food is in the grass at the bottom of the cliffs. The geese brood their eggs through an Arctic summer. They lay&nbsp;them hundreds of feet up in the air, away from the foxes. And then they tell their babies: “Jump.” I&nbsp;turned off the TV then, when I&nbsp;saw the first chick shakily tumble from its ragged nest, smacking against a&nbsp;rock before&nbsp;floating off again into the wind. Hello, I’m back. But I’m a&nbsp;mother now and I’m weak.</p><p>I had some evenings at the very beginning of her when I’d realise I was sobbing. And at the time I&nbsp;thought it was just exhaustion. “Just”. I don’t mean “just” – I&nbsp;mean the crippling, furious, white-faced exhaustion that comes from being&nbsp;awake for three days and three nights, some of those in a&nbsp;room where the lights never went out. But&nbsp;I see now that it wasn’t only&nbsp;that, that exhaustion that you can almost chew on; it&nbsp;was something new, and it was horrible because it was love. The thing I&nbsp;feel&nbsp;for her is physically painful. It’s an awful love.&nbsp;A terrible love. It continues to wind me. It’s&nbsp;a one-inch punch. It’s&nbsp;not the comforting&nbsp;bath of love I’m used to. It’s a bruise being&nbsp;pressed, continually, by a&nbsp;strong thumb.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/04/seismic-changes-of-having-baby-eva-wiseman">Continue reading...</a>Parents and parentingChildbirthMidwiferyWork-life balanceFamilyWork & careersHealth & wellbeingHealthPregnancyLife and styleSocietySun, 04 Jan 2015 12:26:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/04/seismic-changes-of-having-baby-eva-wisemanPhotograph: Laurence Cendrowicz/BBC/Neal Street ProductionsWoman on the street: a scene from the 2013 Call the Midwife Christmas Special. Photograph: Laurence Cendrowicz/BBCPhotograph: Laurence Cendrowicz/BBC/Neal Street ProductionsWoman on the street: a scene from the 2013 Call the Midwife Christmas Special. Photograph: Laurence Cendrowicz/BBCEva Wiseman2015-01-04T12:26:02ZFashion picks: Eva Wiseman on bold eyeshttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2014/sep/05/-sp-fashion-picks-eva-wiseman-on-bold-eyes
<p>I love this bold eye look because it’s not about prettifying. It’s about smearing on kohl or a wave of blue shadow and leaving the house as if you’re walking on stage. At Missoni the models looked like they’d cried and wiped their eyes with a fist. There were mucky finger smudges at <a href="http://www.guprod.gnl/fashion/prada">Prada</a>. Liquid latex in mermaid-y green at <a href="http://www.guprod.gnl/fashion/christian-dior">Christian Dior</a>. Everything looked a bit mean, a bit indie, like the models had done their make-up hunched over a car wing mirror on their way to a gig.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2014/sep/05/-sp-fashion-picks-eva-wiseman-on-bold-eyes">Continue reading...</a>BeautyMakeupLife and styleFri, 05 Sep 2014 22:00:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2014/sep/05/-sp-fashion-picks-eva-wiseman-on-bold-eyesPhotograph: GuardianBold eyesPhotograph: GuardianBold eyesEva Wiseman2014-09-05T22:00:10ZHaving monograms on your clothes gives them more than a touch of class | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/sep/05/monograms-clothes-touch-class
This season, nothing's truly yours unless it's got your name on it. Just ask Cara Delevingne with her monogrammed Burberry poncho<p>Once upon a time there were bags. There were notepads. There were pyjamas, and you knew they were your pyjamas because you had bought them, worn them, and they lived in your drawer underneath the T-shirt you won in a team-building exercise, and a pair of slipper socks. Those days have passed. Today, an object is not yours, not truly yours unless it has your name on it, big, bold, and preferably sans serif.</p><p>Models do it best. <a href="http://news.instyle.com/2014/07/30/were-obsessed-olivia-palermo-wears-burberry-prorsums-blanket-poncho-in-n-y-c/" title="">Cara Delevingne has a monogrammed Burberry poncho</a> and a massive <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Cara-printed+Fendi+bag&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;tbm=isch&amp;tbo=u&amp;source=univ&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=xxHiU-_HA6SQ7AacwYGQDg&amp;ved=0CEUQsAQ&amp;biw=1367&amp;bih=1042" title="">Cara-printed Fendi bag</a>. Karlie Kloss wears a bomber jacket that says Karlie all curly on the back. <a href="http://austin.culturemap.com/news/fashion/08-01-14-rag-bone-fall-collection-cosby-sweaters-atx/" title="">Georgia May Jagger has a satin Rag &amp; Bone</a> one which makes her look like the leader of an expensive sub-sect of the Pink Ladies. This is a trend that has crept across seasons, across bags, cushions, slippers. Smythson embossed diaries, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Whistles+monogrammed+bags&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;tbm=isch&amp;tbo=u&amp;source=univ&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=ZQ_iU8fkI-We7AabxoHQAQ&amp;ved=0CD0QsAQ&amp;biw=1367&amp;bih=1042" title="">Whistles monogrammed bags</a>, <a href="http://www.oliversweeney.com/tattoo.html?isource=PPPC&amp;gclid=CM7ezLbD_r8CFbHMtAodl2QAiA" title="">Oliver Sweeney tattooed shoes</a> - you can get your name on a bar of Dove soap, or a pack of M&amp;Ms. The idea is that you're not expecting to share.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/sep/05/monograms-clothes-touch-class">Continue reading...</a>FashionLife and styleCara DelevingneHandbagsFri, 05 Sep 2014 22:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/sep/05/monograms-clothes-touch-classVictor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesModel Georgia May Taylor wearing her monogrammed Rag & Bone shirt. Photograph: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesVictor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesModel Georgia May Taylor wearing her monogrammed Rag & Bone shirt. Photograph: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesEva Wiseman2014-09-05T22:00:00ZLights, camera, lipstick: beauty vloggers are changing the face of the make-up industryhttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/jul/20/beauty-bloggers-changing-makeup-industry
<p>With millions of viewers - and millions of pounds changing hands - online beauty tutorials are one of Britain’s fastest-growing businesses. But for the young people involved it is about far more than just make-up. Eva Wiseman meets the vloggers</p><p>We are in a warm black-walled room in central London and the air is thick with perfume. A group of teenage girls looks from face to face, not sure who should introduce themselves first. To start with they are shy, clutching cups of tea and lip gloss, but as time passes they relax. The room gets even warmer. This is a studio in YouTube’s offices, and these are amateur beauty <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/apr/07/youtube-superstars-new-generation-bloggers">video bloggers: vloggers</a>. They are here to learn about lighting, presenting and networking. Then they’ll eat cake.</p><p>For YouTube, these small-screen performers mean big business, in shades of pastel, lime and bronze. The Google-owned site continues to produce young ambitious celebrities – 72 hours of video a minute are uploaded by documentary-makers, musicians, animators, each with thousands of subscribers to their channels. But the fastest-growing subsection is the beauty vloggers. Two-fifths of British women are viewing online beauty tutorials, an industry that attracts 700m hits a month.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/jul/20/beauty-bloggers-changing-makeup-industry">Continue reading...</a>BeautyBloggingLife and styleFashionMakeupYouTubeNewspapers & magazinesDigital mediaMediaSat, 19 Jul 2014 23:05:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/jul/20/beauty-bloggers-changing-makeup-industryPhotograph: Casey Orr/ObserverUp close and personal: vbloggers hone their craft. Photograph: Casey Orr for the ObserverPhotograph: Casey Orr/ObserverUp close and personal: vbloggers hone their craft. Photograph: Casey Orr for the ObserverPhotograph: Casey Orr/ObserverFlash light: Anchal through the looking glass. Photograph: Casey Orr for the ObserverPhotograph: Casey Orr/ObserverFlash light: Anchal through the looking glass. Photograph: Casey Orr for the ObserverPhotograph: Casey Orr/ObserverAbout face: Anchal Seda, a vlogger who posts videos between tutorials for her BA in make-up artistry, at a meeting in YouTube’s London office Photograph: Casey Orr for the ObserverPhotograph: Casey Orr/ObserverAbout face: Anchal Seda, a vlogger who posts videos between tutorials for her BA in make-up artistry, at a meeting in YouTube’s London office Photograph: Casey Orr for the ObserverEva Wiseman2014-07-19T23:05:12ZThe best oil-based body creams | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/29/best-oil-based-body-creams
Not as messy as the liquid oils, these creams will leave your skin smooth, soft and sweetly scented<p>Applying a good body moisturiser feels like feeding your skin a really decent meal. A balanced meat-two-veg-hot-pudding-to-follow sort of set-up. It nourishes. Smothering damp, showered skin with my new favourite thing, <strong>Cowshed's Udderly Gorgeous Stretch Mark Balm</strong> (&pound;21, <a href="http://www.cowshedonline.com/" title="">cowshedonline.com</a>) – I choose to ignore the name; it just didn't happen – is as close to yoga as I get. It's thick, almost set, but warms into an oily balm in your hand and leaves your skin with a generous sheen. Oil-based body creams are slightly less messy than their liquid counterparts, but both are marv for very dry skin and for holding their perfume as the day rolls on, too.</p><p></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/29/best-oil-based-body-creams">Continue reading...</a>BeautyLife and styleSun, 29 Jun 2014 05:00:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/29/best-oil-based-body-creamsPR'Glib and oily art': treat yourself to one of these super-smoothing creams.PR'Glib and oily art': treat yourself to one of these super-smoothing creams.Eva Wiseman2014-06-29T05:00:06ZThe best of self-tanning lotions | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/15/best-self-tanning-lotions
You can't always depend on the sun to give you that burnished glow, but these creams will sort you out whatever the weather<p>The idea is that you apply a gentle coat of tanning moisturiser every day from now until proper summer, so that by the time you really can't avoid getting your legs out, they'll look like actual legs rather than a pair of mooli. You have less to lose with a gradual tan – less chance of mahogany streaks up your shins or patches around your knees – but the best results come with a bit of time, a bit of exfoliation, a bit of <strong>Cr&egrave;me de la Mer Face and Body Gradual Tan</strong> on your face (&pound;65, <a href="http://www.cremedelamer.co.uk/offer/lift14?cm_mmc=google-_-search-_-brand-_-www.cremedelamer.co.uk" title="">cremedelamer.co.uk</a>) – expensive, yes, but lasts for ages if you mix it in with your daily moisturiser – and a smoothing of <strong>Elemis Total Glow Bronzing Body Lotion</strong> (&pound;34.50, <a href="http://www.timetospa.co.uk/?gclid=CLXZwL3-zr4CFckJwwodKk0A_w" title="">timetospa.co.uk</a>) on your body after a&nbsp;shower. Good luck out there, guys.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/15/best-self-tanning-lotions">Continue reading...</a>BeautyLife and styleSun, 15 Jun 2014 09:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/15/best-self-tanning-lotionsPRThe bronze age: easy ways to build up a tan.PRThe bronze age: easy ways to build up a tan.Eva Wiseman2014-06-15T09:00:00ZSlenderman, Blair Witch… why we love creepy stories | Eva Wisemanhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/15/slenderman-blair-witch-creepy-stories
The essence of the most spooky tales is a thrilling terror of the unknown. And with that thought… Eva Wiseman heads off for a while<p>Walking home after seeing the <em>Blair Witch Project </em>at the local lido multiplex, a thing ran across the pavement in front of me and maybe it was a massive cat or maybe it was a deathly monster. I suppose I'll never know. But this is the joy of horror. That the stories never tie up neatly, and that perhaps you're not seeing everything, ever.</p><p>Good terror is hard to find, but this week it found us, in the form of Slenderman. Two 12-year-old girls took their friend into the woods and stabbed her half to death. When police found them, they said they were sacrificing their victim to become proxies of a thing called the Slenderman, a tall, dark-suited, blank-faced myth. After killing her, they'd intended to &quot;run away to the demon's forest mansion in the Nicolet National Forest,&quot; except there was no demon's forest mansion, because there was no demon.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/15/slenderman-blair-witch-creepy-stories">Continue reading...</a>Sun, 15 Jun 2014 05:29:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/15/slenderman-blair-witch-creepy-storiesDan Kitwood/Getty ImagesTales of the unexpected: a fan poses as Slenderman at the MCM London Comic Con Expo in London. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesDan Kitwood/Getty ImagesTales of the unexpected: a fan poses as Slenderman at the MCM London Comic Con Expo in London. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesEva Wiseman2014-06-15T05:29:00Z